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Nov. 11, 2013 – The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC) in cooperation with Dr. Daniel Hindman and Dr. Earl Kline from the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech have been awarded a grant from the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) through the Center for Innovation and Technology (CIT) in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Other partners include the American Wood Council, CLT USA LLC, and Morgan Lumber Company. The project is entitled “Use of Southern Yellow Pine as an Alternative Material for the Manufacture of Cross-Laminated Timber Panels for Use in Commercial Construction”. The purpose of this grant is to demonstrate the applicability of southern yellow pine material in the construction of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels for use as building code compliant materials.
SVHEC currently has a cold press capable of manufacturing CLT panels 5 feet wide and 8 feet long. A series of 5-layer V3 panels will be constructed and subsequent code-compliant evaluations – including mechanical properties, fire, and acoustics – will be conducted. “Our expectation is to produce a 2 hour fire wall that meets current acoustic standards in the International Building Code,” says Dr. Hindman. “CLT panels are the only carbon negative structural system and provide many innovations in terms of construction time, energy efficiency and flexibility of design.”